Friday, December 29, 2006

The Tom Waits Site

An acquaintance, a Tom Waits scholar if there ever was one, was, unitentionally, putting me to shame as regards the comings, goings, doings, and talkings of Mr. Waits. He recounted that he and his lovely wife had cancelled a planned and paid for week-long stay at Martha's Vineyard this previous autumn as they were able to bag some tickets to see Mr. Waits perform in Louisville and, two days later, in Chicago, as Mr. Waits went from small venue to small venue allegedly supporting his latest release, Orphans.

I hadn't realized he had been touring and making public appearances, with the exception of the Daily Show wherein Jon Stewart practically soiled himself with the heaps of praise he was forking onto Mr. Waits. Mr. Waits' performance of his song, Day After Tomorrow, that night was a heartbreaker of major proportions.

How did the acquaintance hear of these shows and, more importantly, how did he get all of the details and score some tix?"This site, EyeballKid, is all he said.Great info. Great links. No overanalysis. Just the facts, Ma'am.As the acquaintance put it, "None of that typing to read themselves speak stuff. You know, that blogging shit." He eyed me a tad too long for my comfort after launching that last op piece, checking to see if I had blinked or I'd teared up.He continued, "This guy loves Tom Waits but he knows he's not Tom Waits. So, he writes simply, not in some infatuated 'Tom Waits' style. He spit out a shard of tobacco leaf poking from his cigar, let it float to the floor, and then ground it in with his toe. I felt the leather twist my psyche. He stepped back, cut a fast 90, and exited stage right.

I just saw Tom Waits on a late night show (maybe it was The Daily Show...but I don't think that was the song he sang, so now I'm not sure). I just know I was shocked to see him in public. I thought surely he had overdosed by now. 8-}

You're right about Stewart nearly soiling himself. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with that show. Not that I wanted to see Stewart put Waits in "The Seat of Heat", but Waits is a genuinely funny man if the interviewer just gives him enough lead-time (witness his return re: guitars and problem-solving in Iraq: "I'm sure it's something that simple."), and Stewart was just too nervous to make the pitch, nevermind float the ball across the plate. As it was, I got the sense that Stewart, usually the coolest person in any given room, was suddenly confronted with a hero he'd always considered the ubermensch of cool. He could have cut to the chase and done a Wayne & Garth: "We're not worthy!"

Mind you, it might simply have been a matter of the bathroom caving in on Waits before he took to the stage